4 comments:

King Bjarni IRONREDE of Norrheim??? I should hope all fans of Poul Anderson would recognize "Ironrede"! I certainly hope I did when I first read that part of THE HING KING OF MONTIVAL. Yet another Stirlingian allusion to Poul Anderson, and one I love!

And as for that victory feast, only people as physically ACTIVE as the post-Change survivors could get away with eating like that! Unless, of course, you were Nicholas van Rijn! (Smiles)

Also they're living in a cold climate -- that part of northern Maine is fertile (there's a lot of big mixed farms there) but the growing season is short. Hence the emphasis on roots and grains and meat/dairy. It's a healthy enough diet if you're careful to avoid certain deficiencies. (Eating the organ meats helps, for example.) So does collecting and drying/freezing as much in the way of wild fruits as possible. Maine blueberries are great.

I had not realized Maine had that much fertile land, suitable for farming, despite the short growing season. I tend to think of Maine as being largely FORESTED. I knew organ meats helps to avoid suffering deficiencies. And SPRUCE tea sounds rather odd!